Rant ffs bloody specialty cables :eek:

[TdC]

well, I've discovered by faffing about that my car audio thing will not work in my new car because it.....needs a special cable to connect the otherwise perfectly standard ISO cable already in my car to the completely non-standard socket on the back of my audio thingy. woo hoo go standards! (ofc I pulled the unit out of my old car not giving it a second thought that there may be an adapter of sorts between my player and the car but there you go)

anyways, I bimble down the local Halfords on Christmas eve because in my mind they have everything car related and the guy doesn't even bat an eyelid. I know the part you need Sir, a JVC player is it? It will have to be ordered special Sir, 35 euros should cover it!

thirty five euros? holy horse poop! anyway, I politely tell him to go become a backdoor bandit and go to work fuming.

Anyways, I just now remembered this so-called special and expensive adapter cable so I googled it. Turns out a company in Hong Hong sell them, and will gladly ship them to me at a total cost of just under 5 euros, of which 4 are shipping. A wave of the magic paypal wand later and it should arrive at some point in the near future.

Now I don't really know where I'm going with this little rant, but if Mr Halfords had said a tenner I'd have been fine with it. I know for a fact that the part itself can't be that expensive because it's just some molex and wires basically, and JVC has to make them anyway because otherwise their cd players won't work. I know shops have to make a living but asking 35x some things value is ridiculous

 

[nath]

PC World - PC Line USB-2.0 PC USB Cable-2.0 - Shop for cheap USB Connections

£15 quid for a USB A to B cable. I share your hatred of absolutely fucking barmy markups.

 

[Trem]

When you get your cable swap the unpluggable wires around, think they are either white or yellow and have a clear plastic sleeve over the ends. You have to do that with VW's don't ya know. So if it doesn't work or if the permanent live doesn't work when you are all done with your cables thats why.

 

[old.user4556]

I know what you mean teeds, those ISO block (car manufacturer -> standard block -> headunit manufacturer) connectors are a rip off.

As per the "government bailout for vauxhall" thread, these shops are destined to doom for their silly prices.

Other such frustrations spread to the finance world, where "insurance for insurance" is becoming the norm:

"insurance only pays the market value of the car? have the car on finance? you need gap insurance!! insurance to cover your insurance!!".

"home insurance policy doesn't protect against terrorism? you need terrorism insurance to cover your home insurance!!"

A typical call centre call:

"i'll take the total loss house insurance please, can I claim for my smashed phone?"

"sorry sir, total loss doesn't cover mobile phones"

"but it says total loss?"

"ah yes, but if you want mobile phones covered, you need our total TOTAL loss cover to cover the losses not covered in the total loss cover."

"fuck off"

Anyway...

 

[TdC]

£15 quid for a USB A to B cable. I share your hatred of absolutely fucking barmy markups.

don't even get me started on USB. doesn't the U stand for Universal? that gets on my tits perhaps even more :/

When you get your cable swap the unpluggable wires around, think they are either white or yellow and have a clear plastic sleeve over the ends. You have to do that with VW's don't ya know. So if it doesn't work or if the permanent live doesn't work when you are all done with your cables thats why.

a who to the what to the where now? *confused*

"but it says total loss?"

yeah that also irks me. the marketing people should be shot tbh. I wonder what insurance they have? :/

 

[Zenith.UK]

The cable that really grinds my gears is these excessively priced HDMI cables for HDTV connections.
The STARTING price in Maplin is £20.
Other retailers try to foist them off on unsuspecting customers for £50, £60 hell, even up to £100... FOR A CABLE! For the bit that links your PS3/Sky+HD/bluray-player to your HDTV. It is pure daylight robbery.
This thread on playstation.com explains it better than I could.

My shielded HDMI cable with gold contacts cost me £9.99 from Amazon. It works perfectly.

 

[nath]

I often wondered about that. I always thought that was likely the case when it came to HDMI since I always compared it to other digital based cables such as ethernet. With my £2 ethernet cable I don't notice the difference in quality of data being sent over my network, why would there be a difference on HDMI. That said, when I spoke to a chap at Sevenoaks Sound & Vision about it he assured me it made a difference - I'd love to see their argument for that. These cable manufacturers must have some explanation for it.

 

[Zenith.UK]

With HDMI cables, the only visual difference is between poor quality unshielded cables and decent quality shielded cables. If it is unshielded, it can pick up RFI from power leads, walls sockets and other electrical equipment. THis shows up on your screen as white speckles that flash on and off quickly at random. Shielded cables don't pick up RFI and so you don't get the white speckles.

 

[inactionman]

Yeah i'm always seeing people bimbling on about how premium HDMI cables are better than ordinary ones, particularly those stupidly expensive monster ones. How you magically get better picture quality from a digital cable (with the exception of what Zenith says, and I get mine from Scan for about £6 + p&p) I don't know? I guess they'll try to sell you premium ethernet cables soon, that magically improve your latency. Oh wait, Denon have already been there!

It's amazing the markup retail make on cables, and how us in the know can get them so much cheaper, although not as conveniently.

 

[Tom]

It's like anything in business. You charge what people will pay.

Frankly, if I could charge three times my daily rate, I would.

 

[nath]

I don't that's the same. If people are willing to pay extra for your services, then that's what your services are worth - if you can't charge more presumably it's because they would go off and hire someone else who does the same job but for less. With these stupid cables, you *can* get them cheaper and they do the same job but the companies are abusing their position to sell them for more as people don't know any better. It's exploitative and.. well.. shit.

 

[TdC]

aye, what Nath said. Frankly, I'd be pleased to pay a premium for something worth the price, or something I thought was worth the price. If everyone told me Tom was the greatest sound/camera person out there and I could afford it and needed it I'd be glad to acquire his services at a premium. However, for a shitty piece of cable? I think not.

Example: Sun Microsystems used to charge a huge amount of money for a bit of cable called a cluster-interconnect cable, or words to that effect. What IS a cic? It's an ethernet cross cable worth about 50p. Would I pay a huge amount of money for one? Fuck no.

Example: I own a pair of Grado Labs SR-80 headphones. They aren't the best in the range of Grado produce, they aren't even the best in the world. Their top of the range reference product is insanely expensive. Would I dearly like to purchase one? Hell yeah! (will I actually purchase one? feck no, it's 1100 euros!)

 

[Tom]

I don't that's the same. If people are willing to pay extra for your services, then that's what your services are worth - if you can't charge more presumably it's because they would go off and hire someone else who does the same job but for less.

It's absolutely the same thing. People pay what they feel something is worth. I just paid £800 for dental treatment - I thought it was expensive, but I still think it's worth it.

It's exploitative and.. well.. shit.

Most businesses are exploitative. You exploit a person's inability to perform a task, or supply a service. You provide that for them, and charge them accordingly.

I agree the prices of cables in the shops is high, but if they weren't selling they would be priced lower.

 

[nath]

Most businesses are exploitative. You exploit a person's inability to perform a task, or supply a service. You provide that for them, and charge them accordingly.

It's semantics, but I don't agree. I wouldn't consider my business exploitative despite the fact that I'm performing a task that my clients can't. In the vast majority of cases it's not because I'm smarter than them it's just because they lack the time or inclination to learn about computery stuff and would rather spend money to have someone do a decent job rather than learn how to do it themselves. I don't consider that exploitative at all.

However, charging a ridiculous mark-up on an item simply because the client doesn't know better is exploitative - it's the attitude of taking as much money from the customer as they can get away with. Again, comparing to my business I do quite the opposite, I work as quick as I can to provide the best value for money to my customers. If I wanted to, I could do the old "ooo, that's a pickle, this is going to take a few hours to resolve" type thing, or do a half-assed job that would result in having to go back to fix things as often as possible. I actually go there with the mentality that I want them to not have to call me back for a very long time, this makes them way more inclined to call me back when something has genuinely gone wrong.

 

[Chilly]

Dont think it's reasonable? Start a competitor and clean up if you think they are so overpriced.

 

[TdC]

I actually go there with the mentality that I want them to not have to call me back for a very long time, this makes them way more inclined to call me back when something has genuinely gone wrong.

aye, and the exact reverse of this is the feeling I got from the fellow at the Halfords I went to. Imo he was just quoting whatever popped into his head as a price and hoping I'd say "duh, ok then", making me damn glad I'm resourceful enough to manage on my own and at the same time sad for people like say, my mum, who think these people are "experts" out to "help" her

 

[nath]

Dont think it's reasonable? Start a competitor and clean up if you think they are so overpriced.

No thanks, I'll just shop at one of the pre-existing competitors that sell USB cables for about £2.50.

 

[bob269]

Dont think it's reasonable? Start a competitor and clean up if you think they are so overpriced.

From the viewpoint of cables etc, there are hundreds of competitors selling them for £1-£2. Point of the arguments are people not in the know/gullible think pcworld's £15 cables are the norm. Those cheap retailers selling the sensible priced stuff don't have the budgets to advertise on tv thus can't market themselves as a brand. The majority of consumers are idiots and as long as this continues companies will exploit us* and we* will continue to pay

*us and *we being thicko's and not me personally

 

[GReaper]

I find it annoying that manufacturers sell products without the necessary cables to use what you've paid for. If you've paid a large amount of money on a premium product (which to be honest, most HD stuff is still reasonably pricey), the last thing you want is to spend even more money just to connect it.

It annoys me that they've created a market (supplying cables which aren't included) just to rip off people - when the damn things should come with the product.

 

[Tom]

...but then the people who already own such cables would no doubt complain they were being forced into buying something they already have.

 

[Chilly]

its a free market, quit your whining already. as you quite rightly point out there are loads of alternatives. People know about the internet and ebay and if they are too lazy, stupid or gullible to check them then who are we to argue?

 

[Zenith.UK]

I think the main rant is at the retailers that take advantage of those lazy and gullible people, not at the people themselves.

 

[nath]

its a free market, quit your whining already. as you quite rightly point out there are loads of alternatives. People know about the internet and ebay and if they are too lazy, stupid or gullible to check them then who are we to argue?

Except stupid, lazy or gullible aren't the only options. Some people just aren't aware and some companies are quick to take advantage of this. Take your head out of your arse, the world isn't a neutral place, there are ***** and there are cunty companies.

 

[Tom]

Doesn't really matter if they're aware or not. If they didn't think the cables were worth the money, they wouldn't pay for them.

 

[nath]

Well, printers rarely (if ever) come with a USB A to B cable so they're kind of stuck having to buy one. Sure you can make the argument that if the cable was £200 they wouldn't, but the fact of the matter is PC World is marking them up to an unreasonable degree.

 

[Chilly]

Welcome to capitalism. Selling clues @ £500 a pop.

 

[nath]

Wow, you're a fucking moron.

 

[Chilly]

£485 due to credit crunch etc

 

[nath]

Not quite sure what clue you're selling. I'm well aware that this is capitalism, that doesn't stop it being a cunty business practice.

 

[Chilly]

And to my point exactly: cuntish business practices. If you are a business and you are not charging the absolute max you can get away with you suck. If you do anything else in this country the competition will own you. Of course there are lots of factors when pricing up stuff, but at the end of the day a business is legally obliged to make money (or try its best, anyway).

I quite agree the cables are a rip off and its a bit cheeky to exploit the market as they do, by the way.